David's quick visit

David made a quick visit to Charleston on Tuesday 22nd as decisions had to be made - again! This time it was to sign off on driveway layout, make the final selection of paint colors, approve landscaping plans and sign off on design of column supports and more... It was cold in Washington but much more pleasant in Charleston once the morning chill wore off. The paint decision was a choice between two finalists where the differences were subtle and the main concern was to avoid going too dark. Unfortunately the primer was baby blue and it is hard to look at any samples without being influenced by the blue background. Nonetheless, David summoned all his courage and decided! (We now know who to blame).

The upstairs deck is now finished and looks great! Only some trim and railings are missing. I can see us now with a margarita in the late afternoon... The pool tiling and coping was being installed although the final finish to the pool must cure underwater and is one of the last things to be done. Most of the activity was with kitchen cabinets and trim work on crown molding and wainscotting. Trust me, the blue walls in the photo will not be staying!

Another feature that is looking very nice is the staircase. We are very pleased with the look.

A tour of the property with the landscaper, a meeting with the electronics company, a quick bite for lunch and then back to Robert Morgan to go over the budget. (ugh!) The final discussion was over stain colors for the panelled study. A direction was determined but no final decisions. That will wait until our nextvisit in mid-February. By then the painters will have completed their first run and we will have a much better idea of what we have created.

The Holidays

After a wonderful visit, great food, and movies with Noelle and Stuart in Toronto for Christmas, we dedicated the rest of the holiday season to the house. On Boxing Day (26th), we drove to High Point, NC where we camped out at Furnitureland South for a couple of days. With over a million sq ft of showroom and very good prices, we exhausted ourselves for two and a half days walking back and forth through the showrooms. Our objective was to make sure that our visitors would have nothing but the best to sit on, lie on and party on when they visit.

There is little else to do in High Point but to look at furnishings however, we did manage to have a very nice evening at Noble's Restaurant near the hotel. The highlight was our waiter who confided in us that he is a competitive Elvis impersonator (the early years) and has competed all over, including Canada. We were spared any impromptu songs but thought that with his current girth he might want to move over to Elvis' later years.

We made it back to Wasington in time to join friends for dinner and dancing at the Country Club of Fairfax for our final New Year's Eve. We resigned as of December 31st due to the pending move and the fact that January and February in Washington are not conducive to golf.

Off to charleston early on the 1st - and was it ever cold! Well, cold for Charleston and we were not dressed for it. The Brazilian crew were there putting some final touches on the shakes and they opined that the weather was not to their liking.

The schedule was hectic as always: door hardware, landscaping, fencing, closet designs, paint colors, crown molding, swimming pool colors, sign-offs on granite, lighting, built-ins, final flooring approvals and more. We dedicated the three days to details and made decisions we never thought we would have to make. When you visit, we hope you will open the drawer to the bathroom cabinet and think "wow what a nice knob and by the way the colors in this bathroom match the granite - they must have been difficult to select, but just look at the lighting in this room - it is perfect" (memorize this if you want to be invited back!).

Things are moving quickly now and we will have to go back again fairly soon. They did a great job on the outdoor fireplace and are getting ready to put in the barbeque and outdoor kitchen. The next visit will see forms laid for the driveway, color on the walls most of the trim work completed. A few selections remain largely because we decided to await wall colors, and kitchen cabinets before making final choces.

Little was open for dinner on the 1st but we did manage one nice dinner at 39 Rue de Jean French Bistro on Thursday where we had a perfect (what else?) steak/frittes.